Effects of visual cues on acquisition of multiple prior distributions in tactile temporal order judgments

Yasuhito Nagai, Mayu Suzuki, Makoto Miyazaki, Shigeru Kitazawa
Poster
Last modified: 2008-05-13

Abstract


Human judgment of the temporal order of two sensory signals is liable to change depending on our prior experiences. Previous studies reported that these changes occur so that signals presented repeatedly are judged as occurring simultaneously. In our previous study (Miyazaki et al., Nat Neurosci, 2006), we reported opposite perceptual changes in judging the order of two tactile stimuli delivered one to each hand. When stimulations were drawn from a single Gaussian distribution with the mean of -80 ms (left hand first) or +80 ms (right hand first), the perceptual changes occurred in agreement with a Bayesian integration theory. In this study, we raise a question of whether we are able to acquire two prior distributions simultaneously by using visual and/or eye movement cues. Tactile stimulation intervals were randomly sampled from one of the two Gaussian distributions in association with a color cue (green/red), an eye-position cue (look up/down), a retinal-position cue (up/down) or a mouth-shape cue (open/shut). Subjects were able to acquire two distributions with the eye-position and/or retinal position cues but not with color or mouth-shape cues. The results show that visuospatial cues effectively set conditions for acquiring multiple prior distributions in tactile temporal order judgments.

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